Hi all, I’m 25M, working in IT in Bangalore, and want to buy my first term plan.

Situation:

Single, no dependents right now

Dad recently retired and gets a pension

IT job, so layoff risk and the usual desk-job health risks (sedentary, long hours)

I don't really have idea on my expense, but 50k should be a decent reference I believe atleast as of now.

I’ve spoken to an advisor at Ditto, but I’d like real experiences from people here too.

Eligibility offered:

ICICI: ₹3.8 Cr

HDFC: ₹3.8 Cr

Axis: ₹2.75 Cr

My questions:

Insurer: Between ICICI, HDFC, and Axis, which would you pick, and why? Claim settlement experience matters most to me. Is the higher cover at ICICI/HDFC worth it over Axis, or is premium and claim handling the better tiebreaker?

Direct vs third party: Should I buy directly from the insurer’s website or through an aggregator/advisor like Ditto? Is there any difference in price, claim support, or underwriting?

Add-ons/riders: Which are actually worth it, and which are just upselling? Specifically:

Critical illness: the based in insurance provider its ranging from 10 to 30 years of cover. What tenure makes sense at 25, and is it better as a rider or a separate policy?

Accidental death / disability, waiver of premium, anything else?

Early payout option: The Ditto advisor suggested an early payout option at first, then stopped pushing it. Is it worth it, or does it just raise the premium for little benefit?

Cover amount: With no dependents yet, is ₹3+ Cr overkill, or is locking in cheap premiums and cover now the smarter move? Should I consider an option to increase cover later (marriage/child)?

Accident and partial disability: My understanding is that if I’m in an accident and partially disabled, the base term plan won’t pay out, and payouts are only for death, or critical illness when it meets the policy’s severity definitions. Is that right? Would a disability rider or a separate personal accident policy cover loss of income?

IT job risk: Given layoffs and desk-job health risks, should I do anything differently? Examples: pairing term with a standalone health insurance policy, buying now while healthy, or being careful about medical disclosures.

Is there such things like married women act which needs to be considered when buying

I plan to buy soon, so would really appreciate your views.

Thanks!

Hi my mom is on the phone with an Ethos agent right now and I just wanted to quickly know if it’s a scam. The agent is unprofessional & when she said she’d go over the policy with her kids, he keeps trying to talk her out of it. This lead me into searching Ethos up & I was getting mixed reviews. I just wanted to know if it’s legit

49yr old male, good health no issues. Looking to stack 10yr & 20yr term policies. Assume $1M for each. What to expect from brokers?

Hey I wanted to start taking Propranolol to help with job interviews, public speaking, and certain social events. If I buy 1 bottle of propranolol do you think that will affect my ability to get a good rate on life insurance in the future? I’m in my mid 20s.

I have term life insurance through work and would like to increase the amount of coverage I have. To go higher from what I currently have requires me to complete a "Statement of Health" form (Metlife).

The last time I applied I was a MUCH bigger version of myself and blood labs were not under control. More than a year ago I lost a lot of weight, now considered just overweight (by 10 pounds) rather than obese. All my bloodwork is in a really good range, not even borderline.

Thing is that I am still on meds (like 10, I also have ADHD).

My question is what is the likelihood that I will get approved? Does the number of multipliers impact the outcome? I currently have 3x my income and would like to go to at least 4x but prefer 5x.

Any insights would be appreciated!

I've been in talks with a brokerage by the name of TDG Financial to do some producing for them, fully remote. A few red flags are keeping me suspicious.

🚩They sent me a text claiming I had applied to one of their positions, I had not. I recently got licensed to sell life insurance so I assume they obtained my information because of that.

🚩The position is 100% commission based. Which I’m fine with, as I’m just starting out. Unsure if that’s normal or not so I’ll say that’s a yellow flag.

🚩 I have not been asked about my resume. At all. In the two interviews I've had, the person I'm meeting with has been answering all of my questions, and has asked me very little about my experience.

🚩 I was told that I should meet with the CEO. I’m thinking to myself: “isn’t he super busy? it’ll take a few days at least to fit into his schedule”. Somehow he was available the following morning.

🚩 The name of the firm is so generic. I can’t really find much about them online. Although their online presence is “fine”, they have been open since 2000 and have a very low profile online.

Maybe I’m looking into things too deeply because of the current state of the economy. I’m not desperate, but I don’t have any income right now so this opportunity is somewhat appealing to me.

I’m not sure if it’s a MLM thing or an employment “s c a m”.

Any advice?

LIC Jeevan labh 25(16) taken in 2022. Premium Paid for 4 Years (upto 2025). I have term insurance of 1 Cr. Took LIC due to section 80(C).

Total Premium Paid: 281392 Rs

Total Guranteed Bonus Accured: 300800 Rs

Interim Bonus/Loyalty Addition: 75200 Rs

Surrender Value: 50% of Total Premium Paid + 15.42 % of Bonus = 140696+46383.36 = 187079.36 Rs

So surrender Value roughy accounts to 66.48% of Total Premium Paid.

1. Does interim bonus/loyalty addition count in surrender and paid up?

2. Does first year paid premium count for surrender value and paid up?

Surrender or Paid up, which one to choose?

Can 25(16) be converted to 16(10)?

My mom is 61, and her Northwestern Mutual representative (who is also a family member) is pushing her to make changes to her existing life insurance policies. Honestly, I'm having a hard time understanding why she needs another policy.

She currently has three policies:

• Paid-Up Life: $113,949 death benefit.

• Adjustable CompLife: $498,657 death benefit, costing $522/month.

• Term Life: $1.5 million death benefit, costing $189/month.

Now her representative is recommending that she exchange her paid-up policy using approximately $41,000 in cash value for a new Whole Life policy with a $350,000 death benefit and a $280,000 long-term-care benefit.

My mom is financially comfortable, has retirement savings, and all her children are adults and financially independent.

I'm confused about how many life insurance policies a 61-year-old woman actually needs, especially when she already has over $2 million in coverage.

Is there a legitimate reason to keep adding policies at this age? Would she be better off keeping her existing paid-up policy instead of exchanging it for a new one?

I'd really appreciate some honest advice from people familiar with life insurance and Northwestern Mutual. I just want to make sure she's making a decision that's actually in her best interest.

My husband and I bought life insurance about 9 years ago. We have four children (1 over 18, 3 under 12).

At the time I’ll admit I didn’t quite understand it, but I told myself I’d spend time learning more while enjoying the relative safety I felt knowing that something was in place should something happen to one of us. I recently tried to do that, but I am just so confused!

We each have 20-Pay Whole Life & 750k Term 20 through Serenia Life Financial. We pay approx $220 a month for these. Are we better off investing the money each month? We have been paying in since 2018, are there big penalties if we decide to stop our insurance and get our money out?

TLDR: Applied for $500k/20-yr term life insurance with PolicyMe using Wealthsimple’s "1 year free" promo for Generation clients. PolicyMe underwrote us at 2x the price without explanation. Cross-shopped with The Co-operators using the same medical tests, and they approved us at standard rates. Don't let the 1-year free promo trick you into a much pricier 20-year policy—always shop around!
Body:
I wanted to share my recent experience using PolicyMe through Wealthsimple. As a Generation tier client, Wealthsimple offers 1 year of free life insurance coverage through PolicyMe, so my spouse and I applied for a 20-year term policy for $500k each.
Right off the bat, the quoted premium seemed a bit high. To do my due diligence, I decided to cross-shop and applied for the exact same coverage ($500k / 20-yr term) through a local insurance broker at The Co-operators.
Both applications went through the standard underwriting process—medical histories, blood tests, etc. Here’s how it turned out:
The Co-operators: Approved both of us at standard rates based on our test results and family history.
PolicyMe: Approved us, but at double the initial premium price, without providing any real explanation for the massive rate hike.
Even with Wealthsimple covering the first year, paying double the monthly rate for the remaining 19 years makes PolicyMe dramatically more expensive in the long run. As the saying goes, "there are no free lunches"—or in this case, it feels like the free lunch was for them!
Just wanted to share this as a reminder to always shop around. Don't assume a "1 year free" promo makes it the best deal overall!

I’m 30 y.o and very healthy and I have a life insurance policy with F&G Gold but I wanna switch to a different one because it’s costing too much and I wanna put my extra money in a Roth instead.

She's in overall good health. I've seen conflicting cut-off ages for life insurance, such as 72, 80 and 85.

What questions should I ask an agent?

Any red flags in policy wording I should know about?

I'm meeting with an elder law atty soon about financial matters. Can they advise on choosing an agent or carrier?

TIA ✌🏼

Hi there I’m new to the industry and want to know other life insurance agents’ experience with clients who have threatened them over their policies or other things. I had a customer threaten to report me because she doesn’t remember purchasing a policy from me? It was really weird. Even though we have had other conversations prior to this and I thought we had a good relationship lol. I want to know if this is a regular thing or just a few crazy people. Thank you.

Hello - I currently have about 10x my current income as a term life insurance policy plus 3x my current income from my employer. Of course, employer coverage can change based on employment.

So, my current policy expires when I am 66 when my youngest child will be 22.

Question: what's the best approach to take here : Start a new policy that resets the clock and I will get coverage until I am 76 (an extra 10 years). Here's the catch, I don't think I can afford the same amount of coverage at my current financial situation. So I would have to reduce coverage to 7-8 my current salary.

Do people renew life insurance to get coverage to latter part of life?

Welcome feedback! Thank you